WCDMA RNO RF Optimization

WCDMA RNO
RF Optimization
www.huawei.com
Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Review
 This lecture introduces the various stages involved

in optimizing a 3G radio network and focuses
mainly on the RF Optimization phase.
 Step-by-step approach for the analysis of drive

survey data collected by Scanner and test UE is
presented. The analysis is carried out using the
post processing tool.

Review
 RF optimization will be an ongoing activity and will

need to be revisited as traffic increases in the
network and as new sites are deployed.
 In addition, as the network matures, the optimization

process should be enhanced to take into account
statistical data and key performance indicators
collected throughout the network.

Course Contents
Chapter 1 Optimization Phases
Chapter 2 RF Optimization Summary
Chapter 3 RF Analysis Approaches
Chapter 4 Antenna Adjustment Example
Chapter 5 Drop Call Analysis Example

Network Optimization Phases –
Flow Chart
New Site
RF Optimization
Integrated
Y
Service Test and

Parameter Optimization
N
Single Site Verification Y
Regular Reference Route
Testing and Stats Analysis
Cluster of Sites Re-optimization

Ready? Needed?

Network Optimization Phases – Step 1
 Single Site Verification

 To verify the functionality of every new site.
 Objectives
 To ensure there are no faults related to hardware
installation or parameter settings.

 RF Optimization
 Once most the sites in a given area are integrated and
verified, RF (or Cluster) optimization could begin.
 Objectives
 To optimize coverage while in the same time keeping
interference and pilot pollution under control over the
target area. This phase also includes the verification and
optimization of the 3G neighbor lists.

 Services Testing & Parameters Optimization
 To be conducted in areas of good RF conditions in order
to exclude any coverage issues. Such testing does not
need to be performed for each cell but the drive route
must include different clutter types and environments.
 Objectives
 To assess the performance and identify any need for
specific parameter optimization.

 Regular Reference Route Testing & Stats Analysis
 Constant monitoring and evaluation of the network
performance can be based on drive test as well as traffic
statistic analysis.
 Results of the regular analysis may necessitate re-visits to

the RF optimization and/or parameters’ tuning.
 Objectives
 To identify any new issues that could arise, for example,
as a result of increase in traffic or changes in the
environment.
Course Contents

RF Optimization - Preparation
 Clusters
 RF optimization should be carried out for groups or clusters of sites
rather than on single site basis, because the cells’ performance (capacity,
coverage and quality) will influence each other.
Cluster division in a project

 Drive Routes
 Cluster drive surveys should include the coverage areas of each cell and
all the major roads and streets as well as any other important locations.

 Tools
 DTI, Anritsu or Agilent scanner
 Huawei U626, Qualcomm UE, etc
 Huawei Genex Assistant or Actix Analyzer
 GPS
*Support WCDMA
1800/1900/2100M
GARMIN Series AT Command

Supported Huawei
GPS Qualcomm
Mobile WCDMA/HSDPA
TM6250/ 6275
Data card
Trimble Series DTI Scanner Anritsu

GPS (Built-in GPS) Scanner

RF Optimization - Targets
Item Requirements Comments
Target ≥ - 85 dBm Corresponds to outdoor
CPICH RSCP
Minimum -95 dBm measurements.
Target ≥ -8 dB
CPICH Ec/Io Applicable for unloaded network.
Minimum - 14 dB
Active Set size

Target ≤3 Based on scanner data.
(estimated)
% of time a cell is seen as a pilot

Max % < 10 %
polluter.
Pilot pollution
Relative to best server when cell
Threshold 8 dB
is not in Active Set.
UE Tx power Max <15 dBm Assuming 21 dBm max.
SHO Success rate Target >95 % For e1a, e1b & e1c
RF Optimization – Flow Chart
Drive Test
Identify any RF Issues
Identify candidate Identify nature of Determine amount

cells for changes required changes of changes
Implement changes
N Repeat Drive Test
Problem Resolved?
Finish
RF Optimization - Solutions
 Antenna down tilt
 Antenna azimuth
 Antenna location
 Antenna height
 Antenna type
 Site location
 New site

Course Contents

RF Analysis Approaches – Cell Dominance
 Cells with no dominance at all

 A site was not radiating during the drive survey
 Very poor dominance can also be caused by blocking of the

antenna. So a site visit must be made to verify the antenna
clearance.
 Cells with either excessive or poor dominance

 This could be due to a high site or non-optimum antenna down tilts.
 Cells with too large dominance will be causing interference to

adjacent cells resulting in poorer quality and capacity.

RF Analysis Approaches – Cell Dominance
 Areas of non-dominance:
 Areas where there is not a single clear dominant cell and
where the best server changes too frequently.
 Result: Excessive number of soft hand off events reducing

the system efficiency and increasing the probability of call
drops.
 UE vs. Scanner Best Serving Cells:

 Comparison between the UE and scanner SC plots.
Significant differences between the plots may indicate a
missing neighbor or failed soft handoff problem.

RF Analysis Approaches – Cell
Dominance

RF Analysis Approaches – CPICH
Coverage
 Check areas of poor coverage, suggestion value as
below:
 Good: RSCP ≥ -85 dBm
 Fair: -95 dBm ≤ RSCP < -85 dBm
 Poor: RSCP < - 95 dBm
 Examine the RSCP coverage on per cell basis in order

to highlight any cells that have too large a footprint.

RF Analysis Approaches – CPICH
Coverage

RF Analysis Approaches –
Interference
 CPICH Ec/Io Plot
 Good: Ec/Io ≥ -8 dB
 Fair: -14 dB ≤ Ec/Io < -8 dB
 Poor: Ec/Io < - 14 dB
The -8 dB threshold takes into account the expected future interference

increase as a result of increased traffic.

Interference What’s the
-14 - 90 problem?
-15 -15.5 - 95
-16 - 100
-104
-17 - 105
-18 - 110
-19 - 115
-20 - 120
Ec/Io RSCP
Because the RSCP Level is POOR,

the fundamental cause of low Ec/Io is
POOR COVERAGE

Interference
-14
-63 - 60 What’s the
-15 -15.5 - 65 problem?
-16 - 70
-17 - 75
-18 - 80
-19 - 85
-20 - 90
Ec/Io RSCP
RSCP level is GOOD, this will imply

strong SYSTEM INTERFERENCE

Interference

RF Analysis Approaches – UL
Coverage
 Uplink Coverage (UE Tx Power)
 High UE Tx power means possible poor uplink coverage.
 Areas of high Tx power should be compared to the CPICH

pilots to verify if the problem only exists on the uplink.

RF Analysis Approaches – UL
Coverage

RF Analysis Approaches – Pilot
Pollution
 Pilot Pollution Point Define:
 Within a certain margin (which is called ThRSCP_Relative) to the
best server
 The pilot number (whose strength > best server strength–

ThRSCP_Relative) > ThN (ThN means active set size, normally 3)
 Cells which are frequently seen as polluters (e.g. >8% time)

should be marked and investigated.
 Pilot Pollution results should be used in conjunction with the

Estimated Active Set Size

Pollution
-60
-65 Margin
-70
RSCP (dBm)
-75 -62
-64 -66
-68 -69
-80
-85 -81
-90
SC1 SC2 SC3 SC4 SC5 SC6
Active Set Pilot Pollution Not

Pilot Pollution
ThRSCP_Relative was set 8 dB here
Pollution
SC Count % in Pollution Set
8 206 12.9%
9 165 10.3%
10 157 9.8%
11 156 9.7% Should be investigated
12 148 9.2%
13 135 8.4%
16 95 5.9%
17 94 5.9%
18 76 4.7%
19 74 4.6%
20 73 4.6%
21 56 3.5%
32 54 3.4%
35 39 2.4%
37 33 2.1%
43 19 1.2%
48 8 0.5%
53 7 0.4%
67 3 0.2%
80 2 0.1%
130 2 0.1%

Pollution
 Estimated Active Set Size
 Another useful measure of pilot pollution is by looking at the
estimated active set based on the scanner data. This plot is
obtained by modeling the network soft handoff parameters
within Post process tool.
 In order to see areas of excessive SHO candidates, the

estimated active set size is allowed to exceed maximum of 3.
 This can be done in conjunction with the Pilot pollution

analysis.

Pollution
 Estimated Active Set Size Example

RF Analysis Approaches – Neighbor List
 Neighbor List Verification
 The neighbor list could be verified and optimized using the
Neighbor List Verification tool within Actix.
 Recommendations for Each Cell:

 Retain: This indicates that those neighbors have been
confirmed from the drive survey data.
 Add: Missing neighbors
 Remove: These neighbors that were not measured but are

in the neighbor list.
Careful consideration is needed prior to removing neighbours
since the Actix results are drive route dependent.
RF Analysis Approaches – Neighbor List
 Neighbor List Verification Example
Sample Sample
SC Cell Site Latitude Longitude Action Nbr SC %
Count Count
009 70548 Ajman Central 25.41204 55.447 576 Retain 018 82 14.2%
Retain 010 46 8.0%
Retain 016 31 5.4%
Retain 032 20 3.5%
Retain 011 18 3.1%
Add 130 17 3.0%
Retain 021 17 3.0%
Retain 008 12 2.1%
Retain 020 6 1.0%
Retain 012 5 0.9%
Retain 017 2 0.3%
Remove 053 0 0.0%
Remove 019 0 0.0%
Remove 034 0 0.0%
Remove 037 0 0.0%
Remove 013 0 0.0%
Remove 051 0 0.0%

RF Analysis Approaches – SHO
 UE SHO Performance
 The success rates for event 1a, 1b & 1c and can be
obtained from Post process tool
Number of Active Set Updates
Event Count
Event 1a - Cell Addition
328
Event 1b - Cell Removal
306
Event 1c - Cell Replacement
64
Number of Active Set Update Completes
Event Count
326
305
62
Soft-Handover Success Rate
Event Rate
99.4
99.7
96.9

RF Analysis Approaches – Drop
Call
 Drop Call Analysis - RF related issues :
 Poor coverage (RSCP & Ec/Io)
 High interference and hence poor Ec/Io
 Poor uplink coverage (insufficient UE Tx power)
 Poor dominance (best cell changes too frequently

resulting in too many SHO events)
 Pilot pollution (too many cells present)
 Missing neighbors
 Fast change of RF conditions (e.g. turning a corner)

Call
 Drop Call Analysis Example 1
RSCP & Ec/Io degrades

BOTH for scanner and UE
Check for Coverage problems
Call Drop
Call
Ec/Io (and RSCP) degrades for UE

ONLY while scanner shows no degradation
UE camp on new cell immediately

after drop, and UE did not
measure this cell before Drop
Call Drop
Check the Neighbor

Call
Too many and too quick changes

of best server
UE to perform measurements
and SHO in time difficultly
PingPong Handover, need to

improve cell dominance
Call Drop
Course Contents

Antenna Adjustment Example
 RSCP Coverage before Adjustment

 RSCP Coverage after Adjustment

 RSCP Distribution
CPICH RSCP Distribution

40.00%
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
37.48%
20.00%
31.04%
30.27%
29.33%
25.98%
15.00%
20.31%
18.65%
10.00%
1.44%
0.02%
5.47%
5.00%
0.00%
-95 -85 -75 -65 -65

o o o o >
5 t 5t 5t 5t
-10 -9 -8 -7
Before Adjustment After Adjustment

 Down Tilt from 4 to 6 Result

 Down Tilt from 4 to 8 Result

Course Contents

Drop Call Analysis Example
 Drop Call Distribution

 There are total 5 drop calls in the plot.
 The example of drop call 1 is analyzed to show the

process of analysis in the following.
 Drop call 1 occurred at an area of frequent change of

best server as shown by the scanner scrambling code
plot

 CPICH RSCP and Ec/Io before the Call Drop

 Compare Ec/Io from both scanner and UE at the time of the

drop as shown in Figure. This clearly shows the UE Ec/Io to
drop to < -21 dB while the scanner remained above -11 dB.

 Best server before and after the Call Drop

 Comparing the best servers from the UE and the
scanner at the time of drop:
 Drop Call 1 (UE vs. scanner best server) shows that for
the scanner and UE SC008 is the best server prior to the
drop. However, about 30 seconds before the drop, the
scanner selected SC018 as the best server while the UE
continued to have only SC009 in its active set resulting in
the drop call. Immediately after the drop, the UE camps on
SC018.

 UE Active Set and Monitor Set Before and After the Call
Drop

 Conclusion
 Examining the UE Active and Monitored set, Figure does not
show SC018 to be measured by the UE prior to the drop.
 This scenario resembles a missing neighbor problem

 Coverage of Drop Call Point

 Solution:
 Looking at drop call Figure clearly shows that at the
location of the drop, SC018 should not be the best server.
 Cell SC018 clearly requires some down tilting to control its

interference into the area of Drop 1. To illustrate this,
RSCP coverage of SC018 shows clearly that the cell’s is
extending into a large area. E.g. around the location of
drop call, SC018 RSCP is > -75dBm.
 Add the Missing Neighbors

Thank you
www.huawei.com

WCDMA RNO RF Optimization

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WCDMA RNO

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

 This lecture introduces the various stages involved

 Step-by-step approach for the analysis of drive

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

 RF optimization will be an ongoing activity and will

 In addition, as the network matures, the optimization

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chapter 2 RF Optimization Summary

Chapter 3 RF Analysis Approaches

Chapter 4 Antenna Adjustment Example

Chapter 5 Drop Call Analysis Example

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Service Test and

Cluster of Sites Re-optimization

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

 Single Site Verification

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

 Results of the regular analysis may necessitate re-visits to

Chapter 2 RF Optimization Summary

Chapter 3 RF Analysis Approaches

Chapter 4 Antenna Adjustment Example

Chapter 5 Drop Call Analysis Example

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cluster division in a project

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

 Huawei U626, Qualcomm UE, etc

 Huawei Genex Assistant or Actix Analyzer

GARMIN Series AT Command

Trimble Series DTI Scanner Anritsu

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Active Set size

% of time a cell is seen as a pilot

UE Tx power Max <15 dBm Assuming 21 dBm max.

Identify any RF Issues

Identify candidate Identify nature of Determine amount

N Repeat Drive Test

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chapter 2 RF Optimization Summary

Chapter 3 RF Analysis Approaches

Chapter 4 Antenna Adjustment Example

Chapter 5 Drop Call Analysis Example

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

 Cells with no dominance at all

 Very poor dominance can also be caused by blocking of the

 Cells with either excessive or poor dominance

 Cells with too large dominance will be causing interference to

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

 Result: Excessive number of soft hand off events reducing

 UE vs. Scanner Best Serving Cells:

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

 Fair: -95 dBm ≤ RSCP < -85 dBm

 Poor: RSCP < - 95 dBm

 Examine the RSCP coverage on per cell basis in order

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2008 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

 Fair: -14 dB ≤ Ec/Io < -8 dB

 Poor: Ec/Io < - 14 dB

The -8 dB threshold takes into account the expected future interference